LTF » I carried my PC to school, uphill, in five feet of snow

"I got an email today at work talking about the disk space required for a database on a server I’m building:

The entire collection of the databases for this project total approx 10GB (includes backups, logs, etc), which is very small.


The phrase got me: “very small”. Ten gigabytes is “very small”? Since when? Am I that old?"

iB::Topic::Introducing: HandBrake Lite

"HandBrake Lite
by Tyler Loch
based on HandBrake 0.7.0 by Eric Petit

HandBrake Lite is a horribly-mangled abomination of HandBrake, jettisoning its non-crucial features with the one-track goal of creating iPod-sized movies from DVDs."

iSquint - iPod video made easy.

"iSquint is an iPod video conversion app. It's up to 5 times faster than Apple's method, works well with AVIs and MPEGs, and it's infinitely free-er.
It's also rather easy.
Drag in your file, click 'Start', and away you go. You can even set screen-size and quality preferences.
On a 1.5GHz G4, iSquint can convert most video files to iPod-screen-sized videos in realtime. Depending on a few factors, a 20 minute video will take up anywhere from 50-150MB of disk space."

PCWorld.com - The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

"Some items in our Top 50 are innovative devices that appeared briefly and then were quickly consigned to museums and future appearances on eBay, but whose influence spread widely. Others are products we use every day--or wish we could."

REAPER - Rapid Environment for Audio Prototyping and Efficient Recording | Cockos Incorporated | Main

"REAPER is a powerful but sensible Windows application that lets you record, arrange, edit, and render multi-track waveform audio."

China's web censors struggle to muzzle free-spirited bloggers - Technology

"Chinese bloggers are starting to have an impact on their country's conventional print and broadcast media"

MP3 tag info

notes: use id3v2, v1 is limited in entry length

resources:
wikipedia ID3 entry
id3 developer info

software:
id3v2 - A command line id3v2 tag editor
official id3lib homepage

sample: (wrapping is messed up)

mh@deville ~/cfc/mp3/id3v2-0.1.11 --> ./id3v2 -D tst1.mp3
Stripping id3 tag in "tst1.mp3"...id3v1 and v2 stripped.
mh@deville ~/cfc/mp3/id3v2-0.1.11 --> ./id3v2 -2 -a artistzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -A albumzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -t songzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -c commentzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -y 2005 tst1.mp3
mh@deville ~/cfc/mp3/id3v2-0.1.11 --> ./id3v2 -l tst1.mp3 id3v2 tag info for tst1.mp3:TPE1 (Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)): artistzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
TALB (Album/Movie/Show title): albumzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
TIT2 (Title/songname/content description): songzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
COMM (Comments): ()[]: commentzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
TYER (Year): 2005

American Scientist Online - Unwed Numbers

American Scientist Online - Unwed Numbers: "The mathematics of Sudoku, a puzzle that boasts 'No math required!'"

Game of Life links

Nice Java applet version: http://www.ibiblio.org/lifepatterns
Original article: http://www.ibiblio.org/lifepatterns/october1970.html
Life32: fastest for windows, huge universe: http://psoup.math.wisc.edu/Life32.html
Pattern Catalog, with embedded Java applet: http://www.radicaleye.com/lifepage/patterns/contents.html

For Life demo, recommend the Java Applet.

DIY Live » DIY Archive » Ten most needed circuits for the DIYer

"I have decided to compile a list of the top ten most needed circuits that are a must know for anyone interested in DIY projects. These are the basics that can all be interchanged and used in conjunction with each other to make many of the projects that we all love so much."

fabiosirna.com

"The DIY - Paper Bookmarks (sleep version).pdf, is the first original version, with I fell asleep here.... I've also correct the size to fit Letter size Paper. Thanks for english commenters.

The DIY - Paper Bookmarks (note version).pdf is an improved version for taking notes. You can use it on books, moleskine, prints. I use it for tagging my prints"

Visual Distortion

"DBGraffle4 : Automatically draw SQL schema in OmniGraffle"

Ace of Spades HQ

Bad taste alert!! "Cool Facts About Dick Cheney"

ban comic sans :: Free font archive

"download free comic fonts for mac and pc "

Trade

"Trade
Bertil Ohlin, Prize Winner in 1977, showed that countries engage in and benefit from trade if their production resources differ from each other.

Introduction: Why Trade? »
Find out about international trade according to Ohlin's prize-awarded work.

Play the Trade Ruler Game »
Become the supreme ruler in the trade simulation game! "

EVDO EV-DO RUMORS: Wireless Internet Service

"Anywhere EV-DO Service is Provided by the VerizonWireless or Sprint PCS network and they charge you directly $80/m. "

The Secret Hollow Book - Page 1

"Most people have heard of the secret hollow book, also known as a bookshelf safe. They are a great place to stash your valuables or other goodies. Well, I figured it couldn't be too hard to make my own, so I did. You can make one too."

No Left Turns Archive

"though, as they say, the plural of anecdote is not data."

Canon 3D Papercraft

"Nearly everyone has made paper airplanes or tried origami when they were children. Take these memories further when you download dozens of 3D-Papercraft projects for free."

Association Of International Glaucoma Societies............AIGS............

"Glaucoma Hymn

Glaucoma, Glaucoma, Glaucoma
Constricting vision slowly
Halted by progress of science
Vision of a world united
Beyond all science knowing"

And what's with the people in the upper left corner?

The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web

"Robert Bringhurst’s book The Elements of Typographic Style is on many a designer’s bookshelf and is considered to be a classic in the field. Indeed the renowned typographer Hermann Zapf proclaims the book to be a must for everybody in the graphic arts, and especially for our new friends entering the field.

In order to allay some of the myths surrounding typography on the web, I have structured this website to step through Bringhurst’s working principles, explaining how to accomplish each using techniques available in HTML and CSS. The future is considered with coverage of CSS3, and practicality is ever present with workarounds, alternatives and compromises for less able browsers."

russian climbing - Google Video

SSI Shredding Demonstrations

"A movie gallery of actual shredding; from the ordinary but tough, to the surprising."

Play Samorost 2

"Samorost 2 is out!"

Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments

"The 'Tesla Coil ' of the 1990s
UNWISE MICROWAVE OVEN EXPERIMENTS
High Voltage in the Kitchen"

Krautwald

"DIY MagLite Photolamp

I don't know how, but late at night I got the idea that I wanted to covert my new 3D cell Mag-Lite to a handy photo-lamp. Next morning I dug out some 250 GSM paper and some adhesive foil I've been saving for a worthy project and whipped up a quick ghetto-lamp"

Camerapedia.org:About - Camerapedia.org

"The intention of the camerapedia Wiki is to be a repository for information and links to information about all still camera brands and models. You know your camera equipment better than anyone. Please share that knowledge with everyone and contribute."

ColorBlender.com | Your free online color matching toolbox

ColorBlender.com | Your free online color matching toolbox

Introductory Economic Analysis

Introduction to Economic Analysis
by
R. Preston McAfee
California Institute of Technology
"The Open Source Introduction to Microeconomics"

SQLite Database Browser

"SQLite Database Browser is a freeware, public domain, open source visual tool used to create, design and edit database files compatible with SQLite. It is meant to be used for users and developers that want to create databases, edit and search data using a familiar spreadsheet-like interface, without the need to learn complicated SQL commands."

string tripod

"The basic model is a simple piece of string with just a loop at each end. Put one loop around your camera and put your foot in the other. If you pull it tight, you win up to three stops. "

12 sided calendar

"Download a 12 sided calendar
Download a dodecahedral calendar after your own specifiation."

Marital Strife Can Delay Surgical Wound Healing - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today

"At each visit, both members of the couple were subjected to eight small wounds, using a suction blister device. The epidermis roofing the blisters was removed and a plastic template with eight wells was taped over the wounds.

During the first visit, subjects were asked to complete questionnaires designed to gauge their level of stress. Then they were asked to engage in two 10-minute discussions intended to allow the researchers to assess their behavior when they were soliciting and offering social support."

ThinkGeek :: Kill-A-Watt

"The Kill-A-Watt allows you to connect your appliances and assess how efficient they are. A large LCD display counts consumption by the Kilowatt-hour, just like utility companies. You can figure out your electrical expenses by the hour, day, week, month, even an entire year. Monitor the quality of your power by displaying Voltage, Line Frequency, and Power Factor."

Google: Ten Golden Rules - Issues 2006 - MSNBC.com

"At Google, we seek that advantage. The ongoing debate about whether big corporations are mismanaging knowledge workers is one we take very seriously, because those who don't get it right will be gone. We've drawn on good ideas we've seen elsewhere and come up with a few of our own. What follows are seven key principles we use to make knowledge workers most effective. As in most technology companies, many of our employees are engineers, so we will focus on that particular group, but many of the policies apply to all sorts of knowledge workers."

Disappearing Act

"Disappearing Act
Where Have the Men Gone? No Place Good"

Visible Earth: Earth's City Lights

"This image of Earth’s city lights was created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). Originally designed to view clouds by moonlight, the OLS is also used to map the locations of permanent lights on the Earth’s surface."

I Love My Mac The Song - Home

"whenever I want, to plug in a peripheral
it recognizes it right away
I dont have to sweat, and pray for a small miracle
its just great for me
Im as happy as can be
and I have better productivity

I love my Mac
cuz its so dependable, so sensible so beautiful
oh its the only one for me "

Chapter 4: Radio

"Building a simple crystal radio.
Building a radio in ten minutes.
Building a radio out of household implements.
Building a three-penny radio.
Building a radio transmitter in 10 minutes.
Building a matching receiver and signal strength meter.
Building a very simple AM voice transmitter."

FLURL.com - Fordje blazen

How much thrust does a 747 generate? see cars brave
the crosswinds.

Chuck Colson: C.S. Lewis: Prophet of the Twentieth Century

"My task today is to talk about C. S. Lewis as the great prophet of this century that I believe he, along with Francis Schaeffer, indeed was. But before I do, I hope you will indulge me a bit of personal reflection."

Digging a Hole

If I dig a very deep hole, where I go to stop?

Another stupid application for Google Maps...

Are you concerned about where you go to arrive if you dig a very deep straight infinitous hole on Earth? Your problems are solved!

Brothers Judd Good Books and Recommended Reading

"Orrin periodically reviews books from various lists. These include best of and worst of lists, book club lists and more."

Bibliography from Web

"Kids Do Ecology"
U.C. Santa Barbara
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/nceas-web/kids/

"Chaparral"
West Tisbury School, Martha's Vineyard
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/chaparral.htm

"Biome"
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biome

"Chaparral"
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaparral

"Santa Ana Wind"
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana_wind

Panama Canal Miraflores locks time-lapse, 1 week compressed into 11 minutes - Google Video

"This is a time-lapse video i made from the miraflores lock's webcam. I grabbed the stills with my selfmade program WebcamThief and stitched them together with my selfmade program PhotoLapse. "

Morse Code Music by Phil and David Tulga

"Welcome to my Morse Code Music page! It includes: 1) an explanation on how to translate Morse Code into music; 2) an online Morse Code Music activity you can play right now on your computer; and 3) a description of my new Morse Code Mambo group activity — an entertaining blend of Morse Code, Language Arts, and rhythm! So take a couple of minutes and learn more about Morse Code and the wonderful connections we can make between language and music."

Popcasts -beta-

"Popcasts is an aggregator of the most popular podcasts from many different directories and ranking sites, all on one page."

Motion Mountain - The Free Physics Textbook

"How do objects and images move? Why do animals move? What is motion?

How does a rainbow form? Is levitation possible? Do time machines exist? What does 'quantum' mean? What is the maximum force value found in nature? Is 'empty space' really empty? Is the universe a set? Which problems in physics are still unsolved?

This site publishes a free physics textbook that tells the story of how it became possible, after 2500 years of exploration, to answer such questions. The book is written to be entertaining, surprising and challenging on every page. With little mathematics, the text explores the most fascinating parts of mechanics, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, electrodynamics, quantum theory and modern attempts at unification. The essence of these fields is summarized in the most simple terms: it is shown how they are based on the notions of minimum entropy, maximum speed, maximum force, minimum change of charge and minimum action."

The American Enterprise: Star Trek Warps to an End

"But before the Enterprise charges up its dilithium crystals and warps off for good, let's recap four decades of space-opera TV, and see what each series says about the zeitgeist that produced it."

A Party Girl Leads China's Online Revolution - New York Times

"Chinese Web logs have existed since early in this decade, but the form has exploded in recent months, challenging China's ever vigilant online censors and giving flesh to the kind of free-spoken civil society whose emergence the government has long been determined to prevent or at least tightly control.

Web experts say the surge in blogging is a result of strong growth in broadband Internet use, coupled with a huge commercial push by the country's Internet providers aimed at wooing users. Common estimates of the numbers of blogs in China range from one million to two million and growing fast."

Flipbook Printer - Mouser - Software - DonationCoder.com

"Flipbook Printer is a program that lets you make your own printed 'Flipbooks' from avi movie files using business cards.

A gift from DonationCoder.com especially for the holidays, and especially for the young at heart.
Makes a great present - have the kids send a flipbook of them waving hello to the grandparents, or send your loved one a movie of you smiling or blowing them a kiss. It's the ultimate in low-tech movie making!"

Boing Boing: Amateur band performs Super Mario theme on marimba

"After seeing the Marimba Mario Medley, I thought it was about time someone made a collection of the best of the bunch."

Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project

"Cylinder recordings, the first commercially produced sound recordings, are a snapshot of musical and popular culture in the decades around the turn of the 20th century. They have long held the fascination of collectors and have presented challenges for playback and preservation by archives and collectors alike.

With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the UCSB Libraries have created a digital collection of over 5,000 cylinder recordings held by the Department of Special Collections. In an effort to bring these recordings to a wider audience, they can be freely downloaded or streamed online."

Joseph Schumpeter, "Creative Destruction"

"Capitalism, then, is by nature a form or method of economic change and not only never is but never can be stationary. And this evolutionary character of the capitalist process is not merely due to the fact that economic life goes on in a social and natural environment which changes and by its change alters the data of economic action; this fact is important and these changes (wars, revolutions and so on) often condition industrial change, but they are not its prime movers. Nor is this evolutionary character due to a quasi-automatic increase in population and capital or to the vagaries of monetary systems, of which exactly the same thing holds true. The fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new consumers, goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets, the new forms of industrial organization that capitalist enterprise creates."

Leg o Zone: NumaNuma Song

"Sing and dance along!"

The Dilbert Blog: Results of Why I’m Stupid

"If you are new to the Internet, allow me to explain how to debate in this medium. When one person makes any kind of statement, all you need to do is apply one of these methods to make it sound stupid. Then go on the offensive."

FindSounds - Search the Web for Sounds

"Welcome to FindSounds.com, a free site where you can search the Web for sound effects and musical instrument samples."

War on Brats - 11/20/05

"Café's move to boot bad kids kicks up skirmish between the childless and the child-centered."

Warning Label Generator

"Step #1: Choose a warning label..."

Structured Wiring - How To - wire your own home network, video and telephone

"The ideal time to install a home network is while your home is being built. It is so much easier to run all the cabling throughout your home before the walls are finished. This web page will describe the network that I installed in my new home as it was being built with a focus on the 'How To' aspect. "

WEBPAGE of DENNIS HAVLENA - W8MI Mackinac Straits, MI

"Articles here include how-to-build simple but nice sounding/playing folk instruments."

HOW TO: Getting Started with RSS at PaulStamatiou.com

"RSS has become a valuable technology for everything from casual web users to webmasters. According to a recent Yahoo survey only 12% of internet users are aware of RSS and a mere 4% have knowingly used RSS. RSS exists as a means to gather and display information quickly and easily. By the end of this article, you should know what RSS is and how to use it to make your life easier."

ペーパークラフト工房｜マイルーム｜つくっちゃお大作戦｜探検キッズ

Paper models of classic panasonic appliances.

"松下電器のむかしの家電を再現（さいげん）したペーパークラフトだよ。全部作ってならべてみよう！"

OSM Business Model

Kaching!

Stuff page

"Things that ended up tossed but that seem like they have another life ahead of them."

Flight Patterns

"Air traffic as seen by the FAA.

The following flight pattern visualizations are the result of experiments leading to the project Celestial Mechanics by Scott Hessels and Gabriel Dunne. FAA data was parsed and plotted using the Processing programming environment. The frames were composited with Adobe After Effects and/or Maya and the final piece was highlighted at SIGGRAPH 2005 in the NVIDIA Immersive Dome Experience."

Proof of "Paper Folding Theorem"

"We begin by folding a single piece of paper in two. The fold forms a half-circle of radius t, which has perimiter πt. Therefore, πt units of the paper are used in the fold itself. A piece of paper shorter than this cannot be folded even once, because there is not enough paper to form the fold. After folding, the result is a two-layer piece of paper, with total thickness 2t."

Fold Paper in half any number of times

"For extra credit in a math class Britney was given the challenge to fold anything in half 12 times. After extensive experimentation, she folded a sheet of gold foil 12 times, breaking the record. This was using alternate directions of folding. But, the challenge was then redefined to fold a piece of paper. She studied the problem and was the first person to realize the basic cause for the limits. She then derived the folding limit equation for any given dimension. Limiting equations were derived for the case of folding in alternate directions and for the case of folding in a single direction using a long strip of paper. The merits of both folding approaches are discussed, but for high numbers of folds, single direction folding requires less paper. "

How to Read 12 Digit UPC Barcodes - WikiHow

"Most barcodes in the US are 12-digit UPC barcodes, with ten digits at the bottom of the code and one small number to each side. Impress your friends by asking them to select a random item from the kitchen with a removable label and cut the numbers off of the UPC barcode; you can then proceed to read the numbers encoded in the lines."

Google Holiday Logos

"We have a variety of logos commemorating holidays and events. We've put them in this online museum for your amusement. Please do not use them elsewhere."

Uêba !! -> Logotipos Comemorativos Do Google

Google logos

Top Gear playing darts with cars - Google Video

"James & Richard play darts with something slightly bigger, CARS!"

The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 by Popular Mechanics - Project Gutenberg

"The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1
700 Things for Boys to Do"

Katazuke - the tidy table

"Katazukue is a table which ensures it is always clear. The table has a powerful pair of integrated conveyor belts which periodically move anything on the table onto the floor."

SSRN-Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy by Benjamin Barton

"This Essay examines what the Harry Potter series (and particularly the most recent book, The Half-Blood Prince) tells us about government and bureaucracy. There are two short answers. The first is that Rowling presents a government (The Ministry of Magic) that is 100% bureaucracy. There is no discernable executive or legislative branch, and no elections. There is a modified judicial function, but it appears to be completely dominated by the bureaucracy, and certainly does not serve as an independent check on governmental excess.

Second, government is controlled by and for the benefit of the self-interested bureaucrat. The most cold-blooded public choice theorist could not present a bleaker portrait of a government captured by special interests and motivated solely by a desire to increase bureaucratic power and influence. Consider this partial list of government activities: a) torturing children for lying; b) utilizing a prison designed and staffed specifically to suck all life and hope out of the inmates; c) placing citizens in that prison without a hearing; d) allows the death penalty without a trial; e) allowing the powerful, rich or famous to control policy and practice; f) selective prosecution (the powerful go unpunished and the unpopular face trumped-up charges); g) conducting criminal trials without independent defense counsel; h) using truth serum to force confessions; i) maintaining constant surveillance over all citizens; j) allowing no elections whatsoever and no democratic lawmaking process; k) controlling the press. "

OmniNerd - Articles: Is a Hybrid Worth It?

"Gas-electric hybrids are the most fuel-efficient passenger cars on the road and ecologically there isn't a more viable option. Until something big changes, though, the industry-high efficiency can't economically offset the steep sticker price."

TurboTap - Products and Technology

"TurboTap’s groundbreaking, fluid-controlling draft beer technology is the product of a unique collaboration between fluid engineers and draft industry experts. We knew there had to be a better way to control and improve draft pouring."

Unlimited Printable Calendars

"Printable Calendar is a service that provides unlimited printable calendar templates in two different formats (Word and PDF), ready to print at the touch of a button. Just select your options below and hit the 'Create Calendar' button."

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

"THE WEEKEND INTERVIEW

Old School
William F. Buckley explains why he thinks conservatism has become 'a little bit slothful.'
"

Sushi quality fish in East Bay

"Tokyo Fish, San Pablo (near REI) - best in East Bay for this, I think
Yaoya-San in El Cerrito also has a selection"

"Tokyo Fish Market On SanPablo & (near) Gilman in Berkeley
9am - 6pm (closed on Sunday)
Very helpful staff there so ask what's good today?

They have some items still frozen (scallop & amaebi) so ask if you
are looking for those even if you don't see items in glass case.
Unagi is in the freezer case other side of the wall and Edamame is
right next to it. "

"Monterey Fish on Hopkins St in Berkeley
Berkeley Bowl
Trader Joes

For anyone who is looking in SF for excellent quality fish at a surprisingly reasonable price (particularly if you smile real pretty)
Yum Yum Fish Market on Irving and 23rd cannot be beat."

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

"Starting your own Pixar

So, you want to start your own animation dynasty like Mr. Jobs? Well Pixar released RenderMan for Maya this week. RenderMan is the magic software developed in-house by Pixar to 'draw' the frames of their movies."

Book Reviews from Metacritic.com

Like rotten tomatoes for books.

Prince Rupert's Drop Demo Video

"Explosive Glass:
A Rupert Drop Video"

Emily Dickinson's Poetry -- The Railway Train

XVII. THE RAILWAY TRAIN.

I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step

Around a pile of mountains,
And, supercilious, peer
In shanties by the sides of roads;
And then a quarry pare

To fit its sides, and crawl between,
Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanza;
Then chase itself down hill

And neigh like Boanerges;
Then, punctual as a star,
Stop -- docile and omnipotent --
At its own stable door.

Info on Erdos number project

"Most practicing mathematicians are familiar with the definition of one’s Erdös number [that is actually a long Hungarian umlaut over the “o” but we will represent it here by the ordinary two-dot umlaut widely available in html, since the true Hungarian umlaut isn't visible in some browswers — here is what it looks like if your browser supports it: Erdős.]. Paul Erdös (1913–1996), the widely-traveled and incredibly prolific Hungarian mathematician of the highest caliber, wrote hundreds of mathematical research papers in many different areas, many in collaboration with others. His Erdös number is 0. Erdös’s co-authors have Erdös number 1. People other than Erdös who have written a joint paper with someone with Erdös number 1 but not with Erdös have Erdös number 2, and so on. If there is no chain of co-authorships connecting someone with Erdös, then that person’s Erdös number is said to be infinite."

Ex Libris Anonymous

"Book Journals
It should be noted that EACH JOURNAL IS UNIQUE, as in one of a kind. they are all made from recycled book covers and because of it each one is a different size. but please know that we do our best to only put up journals that are of an average or reasonable size. if you have questions about how big a journal is please email me, i'd love to give you more information."

Lew Aerospace - Inventus UAV - Gallery

"The Inventus is a state-of-the-art reconnaissance system packaged in a highly efficient, highly stable flying wing constructed from composite materials. Able to fly manually or autonomously, the Inventus-UAV offers a line-of-sight real-time video and flight link."

Fuller Theological Seminary

"The Cultural Debate over Fantasy and Human Imagination"

Rainy Day Magazine : Maxtor pic

"We chatted with the Maxtor folks about some of the gear they were showing at DigitalLife. Go here to find out just how much data this box can hold!!!"

no direct link, search for Maxtor

River Rock Floor Mat **WITH TUTORIAL**

"I saw this somewhere else and figured that I could recreate it!!

So Hubby and I went for a little trip to 'the Depot' to collect our supplies.
* 1 roll of that rubbery shelf liner stuff in a neutral color(about $3-$4).
* 1-2 bags of river rocks from the garden center (the 1 to 3 inch variety was about $3 a bag)
* 1 tube of Landscaper's adhesive - I bet you could use silicone, but hubby was with and he's all about making things STRONG. (about $3)
* 1 can of polyurethane"

Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

"Have you always harbored a secret (or not so secret) yearning to write? This course is designed to help you learn many of the skills you need to write successful science fiction and fantasy stories. You can use the skills you'll learn here in other kinds of storytelling, as well.

Whether you're trying to write for the first time, or have been at it for a while, you'll probably find some useful tips here. The course is intended mainly for younger (high school and middle school) writers, but it covers fundamentals you can build on no matter what your age."

How to Make a Thinking Cap

"A thinking cap can boost your confidence, and focus your mental energies. Here’s how to make one."

How to Find Lost Objects

"Have you lost something? Have you misplaced your keys, wallet, or other vital possession? Is it hiding from you, somewhere in your home or office? Well, I can help you find it.

How? By running you through my method. Interested? Okay, let’s go—let’s find your lost object!"

Jawbone Radio: Jawbone #81: In Search of Bill Watterson

"On this episode of Jawbone, I go in search for an American cartooning icon, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson. Out of the public spotlight for a decade, Watterson remains incredibly elusive and private. With my Sony mic and IRiver in tow, I travel to Chagrin Falls, Ohio and try to track down one of the most influential comic artists of the 20th century. And what I get is more than I ever expected. Listen in now!"

Coyote Blog: Problems with Amazon Prime

"I actually got and called their customer service phone number, which you will never find on their site (write this down: 1-800-201-7575)."

Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology

"Smearing skin with broccoli can help reduce risk of cancer

Eating cabbage, cooking meat with garlic and smearing your skin with extract of broccoli can all help reduce the risk of cancer, scientists have found.

A series of studies presented yesterday to the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research add to the burgeoning evidence that changing your diet may be among the most effective ways of prolonging your life. Up to a third of cancers are thought to be associated with diet. Experts say eating more fruit and vegetables is the second most effective way to cut the risk of cancer, after not smoking."

California Insider - Security--not

"Schwarzenegger's people have called a press conference for later today to complain about this assault on one of their supporters at a union rally against the governor's agenda in Los Angeles on Friday."

Productive Strategies: List of Academic Lecture Podcasts

"Several universities are making lectures available as Podcasts. Not every class is work well on an iPod, but the content is much more directed toward people who want to learn and not just be entertained. Of course the flip side of this is that some professors are boring in person, to say nothing of listening to their recordings on an iPod. You may need to look around to find someone who is interesting to listen to, but once you find the right feed, you have a tremendous amount of content regularly published for entire semester.

You can subscribe to a class and set iTunes to download new lectures, sync them with your iPod, automatically delete them once you've listened to them (configured under iPod properties in iTunes). This is a great way to expand your education without spending the time required in a traditional class."

Crab vs. Pipe

"Crab vs. Pipe
This is a video taken in 6000 feet of water. An undersea robot is sawing a 3mm wide slit (1/10th of an inch ... remember that width) in a pipeline. The pressure inside the pipeline is 0 psig, while the pressure outside is 2700 psi, or 1.3 tons per square inch. Then a crab comes along...."

Society for Neuroscience | Neuroscience 2003

"Preparing Effective Posters

A poster should be self-contained and self-explanatory, allowing different viewers to proceed on their own while leaving the author free to discuss points raised in inquiry. The poster session offers a more intimate forum for discussion than the slide presentation, but discussion becomes difficult if the author is obliged to devote most of the time explaining the poster to a succession of viewers. Remember that the time spent at each poster figure is determined by the viewer, not the author, as in the case of slide presentations."

Online Extra: Meet Mario's Papa

"Legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto talks how he aims to bring the family together around Nintendo's new console

As the brains behind the video games at Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto has shown a knack for inventing games that kids would get hooked on. In 1985, his Super Mario Bros. -- the world's hottest-selling game ever -- was the first with a scrolling screen, which expanded the playing space vertically, not just horizontally. The next year, he came up with the labyrinthine fantasy world called The Legend of Zelda, which could take skilled gamers hours, and sometimes weeks, to complete. And in the 1990s, his Super Mario 64 was the first console title with 3D graphics. It even forced him to tweak the standard joystick to handle more complex commands."

Manufacturers Blog: CoolStuffBeingMade.com

"You'll find some fun stuff, like the Posters and the very, very cool videos. Don't forget to check out Friday Follies. They are just totally random, but funny clips, videos, rants, you name it. You'll find something in there to like, believe us.

And you'll also find a lot of very pro-manufacturing stuff. We are manufacturers, we make stuff and we do it better than anybody in the world. Sometimes folks get in our way and bug us, like trial lawyers and enviros, and when they do, we say it. Hide the children."

The Morning News - Lone Star Statements, by Matthew Baldwin

"Recently, Time magazine published a list of the 100 best novels. But the praise of professional critics hardly matters to the book-reviewing readers at Amazon.com. A compilation of the best of the worst… about the best.
The following are excerpts from actual one-star Amazon.com reviews of books from Time’s list of the 100 best novels from 1923 to the present. Some entries have been edited."

Hetemeel.com : Dynamic images

"Dynamic Einstein picture

You can change the text on this image to whatever you like. Change the text in the form below, then click on 'preview image'. The text in the image will change accordingly. You can align the text with spaces and enters."

Gawker Shop: Surveys

"Gawker Ts - Pick the Shirts: The Results

Thousands of you voted, and here's what you said. We're printing up a selection of the best, which will be available soon."

Big John

"Features of the Big John toilet seat include:
bullet 1,200 pound weight capacity"

Akihabara News - Toilet MP3

"Japanese toilets are something very special. Everything is raised automatically, the seat is heated and there's even a small Karcher at 180bar (ok, maybe not 180, but it's powerful) for the more intimate parts. And now there is an SD slot and an MP3 player!!!"

RAC Presentation

Nice RAC ppt.

RealClearPolitics - Commentary - What Congress Did Is Disgusting by John Stossel

"Years ago, interviewing economist Walter Williams for a show ABC News called 'Greed,' I was perplexed when Williams said, 'a thief is more moral than a congressman; when a thief steals your money, he doesn't demand you thank him.'

That was silly hyperbole, I thought, but watching Congress spend, I see that I was naive and Williams was right."

Ian Rowland: The Mindreader, The Mind Motivator. Mr Angry and Mrs Calm

"This page of my site is about an amazing perceptual illusion. The purpose of this page is to provide you with a few different ways to appreciate this incredible illusion."

The Open Library

"The Open Library website was created by the Internet Archive to demonstrate a way that books can be represented online.

The vision is to create free web access to important book collections from around the world.

Books are scanned and then offered in an easy-to-use interface for free reading online. If they're in the public domain, the books can be downloaded, shared and printed for free. They can also be printed for a nominal fee by a third party, who will bind and mail the book to you. The books are always FREE to read at the Open Library website."

HuffEnglish.com: Comparison/Contrast Graphic Organizer

"One of the most useful things I learned was a great way to create a graphic organizer for compare and contrast writing. We have all given our students copies of Venn diagrams. I always disliked the fact that the middle portion where the circles overlap doesn't have much room, which forces students either to cram information in the space or to leave off points of comparison. Henry taught us how to make a more effective comparison/contrast graphic organizer."

Grid Game

"lovely timewaster"

A guided tour of the Microsoft Command Shell

"On the Linux platform, the text-based shell is the nexus of computational control and the point at which proper articulation of will can transform commands into consequences. The emulated DOS command shell found in Windows is a shallow farce by comparison, and Microsoft has done little over the years to imbue it with greater power. Now Microsoft is prepared to augment its antiquated command line with a revolutionary new shell that will provide Windows users with a whole new level of control. The Microsoft Command Shell (MSH) features a unique object oriented syntax, extensive support for versatile .NET technology, and an adequate assortment of commands. Available for free download from Microsoft's Beta site, the second MSH beta release provides profound insights into the future of the Windows command line."

Car and Driver - War Wagons - October 2005

"Butt-ugly up-armored M1114 Humvees are a thing of beauty to U.S. troops in Iraq."

'I was asked more than once during my "mini-tour" of duty why a Car and Driver writer was in Baghdad. I answered that since this war has a lot to do with cars—and the petroleum products needed to run them—it was just as appropriate for me to be here as any fancy-pants network anchor. None of whom, by the way, joined us on patrol. Take that, Wolf Blitzer.'

... All Your Base Rhapsody

... All Your Base Rhapsody

Tuskegee Airmen Suit Up, Head to Iraq

"'I think everything should be done to pass their story to future generation of Americans,' said Ted Johnson, 80, who graduated from the Advanced Flight School in 1945 and is considered one of the youngest Tuskegee Airmen.

'It was the Tuskegee Airmen who made America come to its senses,' he said, 'that individuals should be judged on their accomplishments, rather than their ethnicity and color.'"

Jumping Pandas by NHN Japan Corporation

"korean words"

'I Will Eat Your Dollars' - Los Angeles Times

"FESTAC, Nigeria — As patient as fishermen, the young men toil day and night, trawling for replies to the e-mails they shoot to strangers half a world away.

Most recipients hit delete, delete, delete, delete without ever opening the messages that urge them to claim the untold riches of a long-lost deceased second cousin, and the messages that offer millions of dollars to help smuggle loot stolen by a corrupt Nigerian official into a U.S. account.

But the few who actually reply make this a tempting and lucrative business for the boys of Festac, a neighborhood of Lagos at the center of the cyber-scam universe. The targets are called maghas — scammer slang from a Yoruba word meaning fool, and refers to gullible white people."

Defense Tech: Sign Language

"Back in college I had a Soviet studies professor whose office was decorated with lurid, humorless security posters from the U.S.S.R. I thought they were artifacts peculiar to repressive, secrecy-obsessed regimes -- until I started covering the Pentagon."

Instapundit.com

"IT'S THE SMELL OF TEXAS HOME COOKIN' -- and I don't mean that beef stuff they pass off as barbecue.

UPDATE: The barbecue-related hatemail pours in: 'The culinary delight that is Texas barbecue obviously exceeds your otherwise good taste. May your in-box overflow until you take those hateful words back.'

Actually, that beef stuff is pretty good. It's just not, you know, actual barbecue."

pink and white spot cool illusion

"If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink.
If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green.
Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period of time,
all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating if you're lucky!
It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don't disappear.
This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see."

Web 2.0 worm downs MySpace | The Register

"It's been a rough weekend for Tomorrow's People. A JavaScript exploit that has been called the first 'Web 2.0 worm' knocked out MySpace.com - and the $500m-valued website, recently acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp - was still struggling to get back on its feet two days later.

The cunning JavaScript exploit added a million users as 'friends', forcing the site offline. Service was restored on Friday but two days later the site was still struggling with the consequences, serving pages at a glacial pace."

Samy, Their Hero

"As reported yesterday, Samy earlier this month wrote a worm that spread all over the MySpace web community – infecting everybody that crossed its path with “instant friendship”, thus gaining Samy more than a million friends before the MySpace team disabled the worm (taking pretty much the whole site offline to do so). The automatically included message “samy is my hero”, however, remains in thousands of homepages. I’ve email-interviewed Samy, who’s from Los Angeles (and likes to stay anonymous here)."

Putfile - PurePwnage WoWisafeeling

"PurePwnage WoWisafeeling"

Oracle Hot Backup

sysadmin article

[Qemu-devel] [patch] VMDK create support

"[Qemu-devel] [patch] VMDK create support
From: Filip Navara
Subject: [Qemu-devel] [patch] VMDK create support
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 06:09:41 +0200

Support for creating VMDK images."

tutorials/ghostinthemachine - laportestyle.org

"Virtualizing Your Desktop using VMWare

While imaging my XP system before reformatting recently, I realized that it would be nice to have a copy of my current environment available when I was rebuilding the system. Documents, images, files, etc would all be preserved in an image, but the settings and configuration options for many programs are stored in the registry or in proprietary configuration files that can't easily be accessed from a simple disk image. I decided to figure out how to boot my system as a VMWare virtual machine. The following is a general tutorial – moderate competence with Linux is assumed."

Realtime Fourier synthesis

"Realtime Fourier synthesis - Sound generation

The following Excel application will allow you to synthesize sounds.
Just play with the sliders and enjoy what is happening.

Mathematically speaking the sliders control the amplitudes of the overtones of the base frequency.

We offer Excel workbooks for different versions of Excel, but only for Microsoft Windows."

DBTabasco's step by step latte art slideshow on Flickr

"A short walk through for how some latte art has been made"

How to use Japanese style toilet

"Click picture to next."

Awarded: $25G in Google-O'Reilly Open Source Awards :: OSDir.com :: Open Source, Linux News & Software

"One person was able to get Python, Perl & PHP people to all agree on something. No small feat. They all agreed on the success of SQlite, and began using it in earnest by being small as well as extremely fast for all the most common database functions. Our server budgets also thank you.

Dr Richard Hipp (SQLite)"

Awarded: $25G in Google-O'Reilly Open Source Awards :: OSDir.com :: Open Source, Linux News & Software

Awarded: $25G in Google-O'Reilly Open Source Awards :: OSDir.com :: Open Source, Linux News & Software: "One person was able to get Python, Perl & PHP people to all agree on something. No small feat. They all agreed on the success of SQlite, and began using it in earnest by being small as well as extremely fast for all the most common database functions. Our server budgets also thank you."

Snippy

"Click on the Snippy icon – mouse cursor changes to a pen – mark an area of the screen – the marked area is now in your clipboard.

If you want to select a rectangular area, just hold down the Shift key while dragging. You can configure some things like the color of the border and so on by right-clicking on the Snippy icon in the taskbar. One of the things you can do here is to set a keyboard hotkey for activating the capture mode."

Reboot & Remote Power Control via Web Browser: iBoot

"The new Heartbeat Detect feature allows iBoot to monitor any server or PC running either the free Heartbeat Generator Program, or heartbeats integrated into your custom software."

Penguin Smacking

"one of many versions"

Flash » Learn to Dance with Napoleon Dynamite

"Sweet"

Jenga Tower: Sears Tower completed

"This scale model of the Sears Tower is thirty feet tall, consist of over 15,000 Jenga blocks, and weighs over 300 pounds."

VideoHelp.com

"This site will help you to make your own VideoCDs, SVCDs or DVDs that can be played on your standalone DVD Player from video sources like DVD, Video, TV, DV, Cam or downloaded movie clips like DivX, MOV, RM, WMV and ASF. We also have extensive lists of Capture Cards, DVD Media, computer DVD Writers, desktop DVD Recorders and desktop DVD Players with features, compatibility information and user comments."

Intergalactic Medicine Show

"A New Ender's World Story in Every Issue

Orson Scott Card
Editor-in-Chief"

LibraryThing | Catalog your books online

"Catalog your books online

* Easy. Catalog your books online (example); no software required.
* Powerful. Search the Library of Congress and over thirty major libraries around the world.
* Free. Enter 200 books for free; lifetime membership $10 (beta special).
* Tagged. Tag your books as on Flickr and Del.icio.us (example).
* Shared. Show everyone your library, or keep your library private. You can even put a widget on your blog to show people what you're reading.
* Safe. LibraryThing's not going away, but you can export your data.
* Limber. Import data from Delicious Library, Readerware, Amazon Wishlists—virtually anywhere."

Cathy's World - Serenity

"Whedon got the idea for 'Serenity/Firefly' after reading 'The Killer Angels,' a fictionalized account of Gettysburg. The Civil War inspiration explains why in the TV show representatives of the Alliance, the intergalactic governing body of the future, look like Union Troops, while Capt. Mal looks like a Noble Soldier of the Lost Cause -- without that whole pesky slavery thing, of course.

The 'Serenity' spaceship looks just like the old 'Firefly' one, far from the sleek, impeccably clean spaceships of 'Star Trek' and similar shows. I got to tour the set in its 'Firefly' days, and noticed that funky '70s kitsch combined with mid-century (mid-20th-century, that is) moderne. The books piled in the spaceship lounge included old Judith Krantz novels. Maybe the idea was that even 500 years in the future, garage sale flotsam hasn't changed that much. "

SteynOnScreen - Serenity

"— played by Jewel Staite. That’s right: Jewel Staite. For a space show, the characters all have fairly normal names — Mal, Zoe, Simon — but they’re played by actors who sound like minor parts in Star Wars: Summer Glau, Morena Baccarin. The bad guy is a shadowy operative called The Operative, and he’s played by an actor called Chewitel Ejiofor. Didn’t Chewitel Ejiofor get killed by Mace Windu and Oppo Rancisis in Attack of the Clones?"

BBC - Radio 3 - A Bach Christmas

"A Bach Christmas: 16th-25th December 2005

BBC Radio 3 will be celebrating Christmas 2005 by broadcasting continuously over ten days the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The composer's entire surviving body of work will be performed by some of the world's greatest musicians including specially recorded performances by Sir John Eliot Gardiner , Yo-Yo Ma , Angela Hewitt , Philippe Herreweghe and Ton Koopman. "

Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise: 1.37 million Beethovens and counting

"By the way, Naxos's $19.95 offer — which gives you Internet access to their entire catalogue for a year — is quite a deal. I signed up when I needed to listen to Bruckner's Fourth in San Francisco, and ended up spending an utterly smashing day with Bax."

Not Exactly Rocket Science: An oldie but a goodie

"'Blasphemous' NC Barbecue (a.k.a. Crock-Pot Piggy)

Time: 8 hours + overnight, largely unattended"

Adriana's Caravan -- search for Szechuan

Adriana's Caravan: "All of our spices are purchased in very small quantities to guarantee freshness. Because these spices are more flavorful, more aromatic, and less expensive than their bottled counterparts, you will never be satisfied with supermarket spices again.

Whole spices keep better than ground spices. Brown-toned spices will retain their freshness for 1 year; green herbs, 6 months. All individual spices are salt-free. All salt-free blends are marked as such. Store all spices and herbs in tightly sealed glass containers in a cool, dark place.
Be sure to check the International Sections for additional spice blends and spice pastes."

Marginal Revolution: The Undercover Economist

"That is from Tim Harford's new The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich are Rich, the Poor are Poor -- and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car (don't trust Amazon, the release date is November, not January). This book is one of the very best introductions to the economic way of thinking. 'Required Reading,' says Steve Levitt, what better endorsement could you want?

Here is Tim's home page, including his FT 'Dear Economist' columns. Here is Tim's Private Sector Development Blog. Here is Tim's recent FT piece on Thomas Schelling. "

Comparison of different SQL implementations

"The following tables compare how different DBMS products handle various SQL (and related) features. If possible, the tables also state how the implementations should do things, according to the SQL standard."

timewaster

"But, also, don't hate me because this Timewaster is dangerously addictive. Arguably the most addictive since the zombie shootout. I can't explain how to play, really, but it's actually pretty obvious once you dork around with it for a minute." http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_10_09_corner-archive.asp#079521

LILEKS (James) the bleat

"But lo: it’s an iPod that plays video, which is different from a video iPod. Right? Repeat that until your faith in The Leader is restored. As for those of us in Lemmingland, it was fun to see how fast we could flip-flop – or, as they call it in the Beltway, re-nuance our position. We went from “I have no need” to “damn: black or white?” in about 14 seconds. I can only speak for myself, I guess – I would have passed on a big video iPod, because it’s not something I can see myself using very much. But I am in the market for an iPod that can carry around everything; I’d like to have 15 GB of old radio, 15 GB of pop, 15 GB of classical, 5 GB of audio books, and what the hey, why not 10 GB of old movies. I was going to get one anyway, so the video addition is a sweet bonus. Nothing more.

You know what it’s like to have the Kool-Aid not only going in via feeding tube and IV, but shot through a catheter at volumes normally associated with pressure-washers?"

The Innovator's Dilemma

"FAILURE IN THE FACE OF DISRUPTIVE
TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES"

Oracle Finds the Flaw in MySQL's Business Plan

"on Friday, the database behemoth gulped down InnoDB, the development company behind what some people consider to be one of the most crucial pieces of technology in the innovative 5.0 database release."

DOWN IN THE VALLEY: The Uncanny Valley...

"Mori’s research indicated that people feel comfortable or empathetic with non-human creations that are made to appear human only up to a point. Like if you have a robot, he may be a simple mechanical man, and that’s fine; you add some human features such as life-like arms and legs, or maybe a human-looking or even goofy face, and that’s pretty cool; but when you go too far, and the robot (or cartoon) resembles a human being too closely, or just enough to bug us"

Web Sudoku - Billions of Free Sudoku Puzzles to Play Online

"Sudoku (数独) is the number placing game taking the world by storm - see Wikipedia.

The rules of Sudoku are simple. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square."

IBM Research turns 60 | CNET News.com

"Originally housed in a renovated fraternity house at Columbia University, the then-named Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory has become one of the pre-eminent technological research centers in the world--and it has given IBM an edge over competitors in many fields.

Five IBM employees have won Nobel Prizes for, among other achievements, the discovery of electron tunneling and the invention of a microscope that captures images of individual atoms. Add to that seven National Medals of Technology, five National Medals of Science and four A.M. Turing Awards."

USB Floppy Disk Drive RAID

"I had just set up my 2 firewire drives and thought, 'Can I RAID USB Floppy DRIVES'? I happen to work for Y-E DATA which is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of USB Floppy Drives, so I have access to these things. I had just been going through a pile of returns testing the drives for failure. There are always a few that are fine though, so I got 5 of them for this very important scientific feat."

World's Armed Forces Forum

"Colour WWI photos"

MacZealots > Tutorials > Installing WordPress on Tiger

"WordPress is an excellent choice for a personal or professional blog, and the price is right, too. This tutorial will show you how to install WordPress 1.5.1.3 on OS X 10.4 Tiger."

boren.nu » Anatomy of a WordPress Theme

boren.nu » Anatomy of a WordPress Theme: "Here is the list of theme files recognized by WordPress. Of course, your theme can contain any templates, stylesheets, images, or other files you wish to include. Just keep in mind that the following have special meaning to WordPress."

boren.nu » Templates and the “is” Functions

"WordPress 1.3 introduces the “is” series of template functions. These tell you what type of page is being requested. For example, is_home() is true if the home page is being requested. is_category() is true if a category is being requested. Here is the full list of “is” functions and the requests for which they are true."

Miklb’s Mindless Ramblings » “Blank” WordPress Theme

"So, as I’ve begun designing WordPress themes, I found the tutorial over at Urban Giraffe invaluable. They walk you through the dissection of the default Kubrick theme, how to strip it down to bare bones, and start with a blank style sheet. Now that I’ve done that a couple of times, I decided it would be nice to have all the work done, and be able to have all the template files cleaned, as well as a style sheet with all the divs and classes there, simply without the style."

UrbanGiraffe » WordPress Theme Guide

"Dissection of a WordPress theme:

* Part one - Pulling it apart
* Part two - Complete design, header, and footer
* Part three - The sidebar
* Part four - The content"

WordPress Themes by John Godley

"A guide to creating your own themes with WordPress. The guide begins with a short introduction to installing WordPress locally on your own PC, and then follows with a thorough look at how a WordPress theme is constructed. A basic design is established and then expanded upon, ultimately leading to the creation of three example themes. An online accompaniment provides all themes and graphics for download."

boren.nu » Anatomy of a WordPress Theme

"Here is the list of theme files recognized by WordPress. Of course, your theme can contain any templates, stylesheets, images, or other files you wish to include. Just keep in mind that the following have special meaning to WordPress."

boren.nu » Templates and the “is” Functions

"WordPress 1.3 introduces the “is” series of template functions. These tell you what type of page is being requested. For example, is_home() is true if the home page is being requested. is_category() is true if a category is being requested. Here is the full list of “is” functions and the requests for which they are true."

Have Recessions Absolutely, Positively Become Less Painful? - New York Times

"It had been a busy day for Georgia businesses, and FedEx's regular nightly flights from Atlanta to the company's Memphis hub were overbooked with packages. So the local crew made a call to a sprawling, low-slung room here at headquarters, where people hunch over computer screens showing weather maps and flight plans, and asked for help from the five empty FedEx jets that roam over the United States every night.

The recent birth of that small fleet, at a multimillion-dollar price tag, explains a lot about how the nation's economy has become so much more resilient. Think of it as the FedEx economy, a system that constantly recalibrates itself to cope with surprises."

89.3 KPCC | Perspectives | Sandra Tsing Loh

"The Loh Life™ is Sandra Tsing Loh's weekly take on life in early 21st century southern California."

Sudoku

Fill in the grid so that every row,
every column, and every 3x3 box
contains the digits 1 through 9.

B.C. man aims to earn one million air miles in two months | CP

"Pilot Marc Tacchi is seeing the country the way most Canadians never could - or would.

He is soaring with Air Canada, here, there and everywhere, over and over again. Tacchi is currently a frequent flyer with the airline - a very, very frequent flyer trying to accumulate one million air mile credits, which is equal to 10 round-trip, executive class flights to Australia. He aims to do it before the end of November.

A commercial cargo pilot, Tacchi decided two weeks ago to take Air Canada up on its North America Unlimited Pass offer, which costs the customer $3,500 a month and allows unlimited travel to more than 100 destinations in North America."

go anywhere disposable scrabble game.

"here's a scrabble board that conveniently prints on an A4 or lettter sized sheet of paper. if you are ever stuck on a plane or in a pub with no scrabble board you can use this sheet to get your fix."

Dictionary.com/pumpernickel

"[German, probably from dialectal, term of abuse : obsolete Pumper, breaking wind (from dialectal pumpern, to break wind, from Middle High German, to knock, frequentative of pumpen, of imitative origin) + German Nickel, goblin; see nickel.]"

The Military's Walrus: An Unlikely Flying Machine

"DARPA's Walrus program to develop and evaluate a very large airlift vehicle has moved forward; DARPA announced the contractors for the first phase of the program. Despite detailed early descriptions of 'war-balloons' in late nineteenth century science fiction, this isn't your father's (not to mention great-grandfather's) dirigible airship. According to DARPA's press release, 'the Walrus aircraft will be a heavier-than-air vehicle and will generate lift through a combination of aerodynamics, thrust vectoring and gas buoyancy generation and management.'"

This Illiterate Brazilian's Home Speaks Volumes - Los Angeles Times

"A laborer has gathered 10,000 books, giving his impoverished neighbors a window to the world."

My Sandmen: Applying the Principles of War to Harriet Miers SCOTUS Nomination

"MOOSEMUSS is the easily learned acronym that highlights the nine, generally accepted, Principles of War.

M – Mass – Concentrate Combat Power at decisive time and place.
O – Objective – Direct every military operation against a clearly defined, decisive and obtainable objective.
O – Offensive – Seize, retain and exploit the initiative.
S – Surprise – Strike the enemy at a time, a place and in a manner for which he is unprepared.
E - Economy of Force – Allocate minimum combat power to secondary efforts.
M – Maneuver - Place the enemy in a position of disadvantage through flexible application of combat power.
U - Unity of Command – For every objective, ensure unity of effort under on responsible commander.
S – Security – Never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage.
S – Simplicity – Prepare clear, complicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure understanding."

The Interactive Nolli Map Website

"The 1748 Map of Rome, by Giambattista Nolli is widely regarded by scholars as one of the most important historical documents of the city ever created. This project is a collaborative exploration of the exquisite Nolli engraving, through its historic significance and contemporary application."

Mr. Sun!: Cool maps.

"Dig maps? I do. The University of Texas at Austin Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection is a relatively obscure gem. For current events, try the Middle East and Iraq sections, but don't miss the incredible Historical maps collection."

Mr. Sun!: Salute to Adam Mclean.

"Give me a man who knows how to go overboard with style.
Make no mistake about this: Adam Mclean is into alchemy."

Artistic Homes of California, 1887-1890

"Artistic Homes of California consists of twenty-seven views of exteriors (and a few interiors) of mansions located in California. Most of the mansions are located in San Francisco. A few are located in San Jose and Oakland. The individual photomechanical reproductions were published by Britton & Rey between 1887 and 1890 as supplements to the San Francisco News Letter."

IGN: IGN's Top 25 Animated Movies of All Time

"Therefore, we came up with an exhaustive plan: we will rate the Top 25 movies for 13 genres in 13 weeks. Starting today, we will roll out a new genre each Friday until we have covered the most important categories of movies, beginning with Animation! "

Basic Hip Digital Oddio

"Basic Hip Digital Oddio is home to Kiddie Records Weekly, The Online Guide to Whistling Records and host of the Space Age Pop Music broadcast. We collect records from the fifties and sixties, focusing on pop instrumentals, soundtracks and incredibly strange music. We hope you enjoy your visit!"

Kiddie Records Weekly

"I was lucky enough to find this rare EP in beautiful condition and hope you enjoy it's excellent sound quality. Four Ludwig Bemelmans stories combined with the music of master composers, Schubert, Haydn, Beethoven and Rossini. Madeline is right up there with Curious George, Blueberries for Sal, Caps for Sale and The Biggest Bear as one of my all time favorite books as a child. Enjoy this lovely recording!"

Oracle Tip: How to use default values with database columns

"One very common problem is to emulate the Autonumber functionality of other database vendors where a column is automatically populated with some kind of sequence number. In Oracle databases, you cannot specify a sequence number as a DEFAULT value for a column; however, you can emulate this functionality using a trigger. Even if a column is declared NOT NULL, you can still omit the column from INSERT statements to be populated in the trigger."

Diary of Disaster: Riding Out Katrina in the Data Center

"Vacuum-cleaner maker Oreck had the linchpin of its business continuity plan blown away by Hurricane Katrina. Intercosmos Media Group rode out Katrina with half a terabyte of data on the line, guarded by a former Green Beret whose preparations included generators, food, water, a camera and a gun. A day-by-day account of the decisions these companies made and why they made them."

How to Prepare for One Really Quick Getaway - New York Times

"What is the first thing you will grab from your home if your house floods, catches on fire or comes tumbling down in an earthquake? Family photos? The pets? The Hummel figurines?

It probably will not be your financial and medical records, the very things you will need to rebuild your life after a disaster. If you are like most people, you have documents stashed in various places throughout your home, perhaps some under lock and key. And with your mind racing as danger hits, you are not going to have the time or wherewithal to figure out which ones you need."

So what do you have to do to find happiness? - Sunday Times - Times Online

"Are we wired up to be cheerful, or are some of us destined to languish in abject misery? Dorothy Wade reports on the new science of feeling good"

Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near"

Slashdot comment:

"Rewind your brain 15 years and imagine what you'd think if I told you:

Your computer will be roughly 1,000 faster than what you're using today. You will probably have more than 4,000 times the memory, and a fast hard drive that stores over 100,000 times as much as that floppy you're using. You can buy these supercomputers for less than $500 at Wal-Mart.

That computer will be hooked into a self-directed network that was designed by the Department of Defense and various universities - along with nearly 400,000,000 other machines. Your connection to this network will be 10,000 times faster than the 300 baud modem you're using. In fact, it will be fast enough to download high-quality sound and video files in better than realtime.

There will be a good chance that your computer's operating system will have been written by a global team of volunteers, some of them paid by their employers to implement specific parts. Free copies of this system will be available for download over the hyperfast network. You will have free access to the tools required to make your own changes, should you want to.

You will use this mind-bendingly powerful system to view corporate sponsored, community driven messages boards where people will bitch about having to drive cars that are almost unimaginably luxurious compared to what you have today.

Remember: in some fields, the singularity has already happened."

Lost in Translation

"What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth between 5 different languages? The authors of the Systran translation software probably never intended this application of their program. As of September 2003, translation software is almost good enough to turn grammatically correct, slang-free text from one language into grammatically incorrect, barely readable approximations in another. But the software is not equipped for 10 consecutive translations of the same piece of text. The resulting half-English, half-foreign, and totally non sequitur response bears almost no resemblance to the original. Remember the old game of 'Telephone'? Something is lost, and sometimes something is gained. "

Katherine Kersten: A remarkable man melds faith and reason

"Jesse Ventura famously remarked that religion is 'a crutch for weak-minded people.' Jesse, of course, was a bit rough around the edges. But many more sophisticated people share his opinion. In their view, being a religious believer and a thinking person is a contradiction in terms.

Clearly, these folks have never met Rutherford Aris. Aris is a scientist of dazzling brilliance -- a chemical engineer whose mathematical models revolutionized his field -- and a deeply devout Christian. From 1958 to 1996, when he retired, he was one of the University of Minnesota's brightest stars, a primary reason that its chemical engineering graduate program is ranked No. 1 in the nation by the National Research Council.

'Aris thought in a dimension that none of us ordinary folks were capable of,' says colleague Lanny Schmidt, himself an eminent scientist. A mathematical wizard, Aris went straight into industry at 16 after graduating from high school in his home country of England. He never formally attended college -- getting his degree in mathematics with highest honors by correspondence -- and wrote his Ph.D. thesis in six weeks. As a young man, his groundbreaking papers made waves internationally.

Remarkably, Aris held a joint appointment at the university in the Department of Classics and Near Eastern Studies. An avid lover of medieval manuscripts, he scoured French and Italian monasteries for his work on Latin scripts. Aris is a prolific poet, author of 16 books and author or coauthor of 300 technical papers."

Students Discover Economics in Its Natural State - New York Times

"Mr. Tjoa's question was the title of one of two short papers he submitted in response to what I call the 'economic naturalist' writing assignment in my introductory economics course. The specific assignment is 'to use a principle, or principles, discussed in the course to pose and answer an interesting question about some pattern of events or behavior that you personally have observed.'

'Your space limit is 500 words,' the assignment continues. 'Many excellent papers are significantly shorter than that. Please do not lard your essay with complex terminology. Imagine yourself talking to a relative who has never had a course in economics. The best papers are ones that would be clearly intelligible to such a person, and typically these papers do not use any algebra or graphs.'"

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

"THE BASIC LAWS OF HUMAN STUPIDITY
by Carlo M. Cipolla
illustrations by James Donnelly"

National Geographic Magazine - WildCam AFRICA

"Embark on a quiet adventure and watch wildlife gather at Pete's Pond. Baby baboons scurry in the dust. Wildebeests push and shove to make room at the watering hole. Warthogs wallow in the mud."

video link: http://play.rbn.com/ngm/ngm/live/live.rm

Todd Dailey - Weblog - Blog Archive - Restore your iPod nano to new condition with a $4 can of Brasso

"I should emphasize again that I was quite happy with my nano and its condition, even with the slight scratches. I don’t think the nano has a problem with being excessively prone to scratching. That said, it was completely amazing that I could remove every scratch with just a little work with Brasso. If you wish you had put your nano in a case before you used it, you now have an inexpensive way to get a 2nd chance."

Short Story

">(From OMNI, April 1991. This story, which was a 1991 Nebula nominee, has been appearing around the internet lately without my name attached. Several people were kind enough to alert me, but the truth is I'm more flattered than offended. )

THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT

by Terry Bisson

'They're made out of meat.'

'Meat?'

'Meat. They're made out of meat.'

'Meat?'

'There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat.'"

Microsoft Pushes Kid's Programming Language

"'One of the things we realized is that we all learned programming on some flavor of BASIC when we started. You're not going to learn how to program in BASIC anymore,' said Morrison, in an interview. 'We wanted something that isn't 20 years old; modern technology that uses an integrated development environment, so we can take our kids and move them directly from this to the .NET environment.'"

Odd things from Japan / Curiosidades de Japón: Mobile phones, truly mobile

"'Keitai-byuun' ('Keitai' =cell phone, 'byuun' =sound of a speedy run) is a set of wheels that you can attach to your cell phone to make it run like a little car. What for...? I guess it's just for fun, I don't see any other purpose here. This is for people who are really, reeeally bored and are willing to waste a few coins. It comes in 6 colors and 2 types: manual and pull back."

Macworld: News: MIT to launch $100 laptop prototype in November

"The laptop can be powered either with an AC adapter or via a wind-up crank, which is stored in the housing of the laptop where the hinge is located. The laptops will have a 10 to 1 crank rate, so that a child will crank the handle for one minute to get 10 minutes of power and use. When closed, the hinge forms a handle and the AC cord can function as a carrying strap, according to Negroponte. The laptops will be ruggedized and probably made of rubber, he said. They will have four USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, be Wi-Fi- and cell phone enabled and come with 1GB of memory."

Rock Paper Scissors - 25

"You will notice that there is some branching going on with the arrows in the diagram. Trust me, you wouldn't be able to even get close to reading it otherwise. Thick lines branch out to thinner ones, and I've had to actually go around the outside of the circle for the smaller paths. I will be the first to admit that this game is just too complicated and you might get lost unless you really squint. By playing this game you agree not to hold me responsible for blindness, seizures, or let's face it, madness."

CaliforniaRepublic.org

"Teacher Union's Funny Numbers
To understand education budget, start with math...
[Tom McClintock] 5/18/05

The multimillion-dollar campaign paid by starving teachers unions has finally placed our sadly neglected schools at the center of the budget debate.

Across California, children are bringing home notes warning of dire consequences if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's scorched-earth budget is approved -- a budget that slashes Proposition 98 public-school spending from $42.2 billion this year all the way down to $44.7 billion next year.

That should be proof enough that our math programs are suffering."

Polski3's View from Here: YES on Proposition 75

"It is court mandated that public school teachers will be in either CTA/NEA or CFT/AFT, whichever union has bargaining rights in the school district."

Political Calculations: Rewriting the Rules of Math

"Trigonometry has for centuries been difficult for students to learn. Part of the reason is that the foundations of the subject are problematic, relying on vague pictorial definitions of the key concepts of angles and trigonometric functions. That means students rarely come to grips with the logical structure of the theory. Rational trigonometry is much simpler, relying on the fundamental quadratic notions of quadrance and spread, and with basic laws that can be derived completely rigorously using only elementary algebra."

BMW Authorities Vehicles

"Interior and Equipment

The BMW Series Special Task Vehicle is already optimally prepared from the factory for the installation of additional systems. Special equipment like firearms, blue lights, illuminated "stop" batten, etc. is accommodated securely and ergonomically in the vehicle so that it is immediately to hand when needed."

Savings Account Paying 4.0% - Fat Pitch Financials

"Savings Account Paying 4.0%

"

www.nanoengineer-1.com - nanoENGINEER-1 Gallery (New)

"Welcome to the nanoENGINEER-1 Gallery. This collection of images and animations have all been rendered with nanoENGINEER-1.

The jiggling of atoms seen in these animations results not from mechanically induced vibration, but from the thermal motion of atoms, a natural occuring phenomenon that is visible in dynamical simulations at this scale.

We invite you to click on the links below to learn more about each nanodevice design, who created it, and how nanoENGINEER-1 was used to simulate it.
"

Shirt Ninja

"Tie the sleeves in a single knot in the middle of your head. Very simple.
Pull it tight so the mask does not come loose during battle. "

WLTX News19 FYI Experiment: Mentos & Soda -- It's a BLAST!

"*** WHAT DO I NEED? ***

- One 2-Liter Bottle of Soda
(Diet soda is recommended - less sticky!)
- A pack of Mentos
- Optional: A test tube and an index card
- A level surface, preferably OUTDOORS!"

GameSpot - Sid Meier's Legacy

"Join us for a tour of Sid Meier's games, from the early obscure titles to the well-known classics. We'll even peek into some corners that Sid himself would probably wish would stay hidden, but that's half the fun, especially when we hear it from Sid himself."

CINCINNATI SUBWAY

"Abandoned tunnels are often the object of urban legend, but Cincinnati is in fact the site of the country's largest abandoned subway tunnel. But 'abandoned' is not quite the word, as construction slowed to a stop in 1925 before even half of the 16 mile line was completed. Seven miles between Cincinnati's central business district and the industrial suburb of Norwood were tunneled, bridged, or graded, but no track was laid and no subway cars were ordered. No passengers ever rode between the six stations that were built."

Magical Macintosh Key Sequences

"All the magic key sequences to make your Mac do various things."

HIOX PHP Tutorials - Error Handling, supress error, stop, turning off warning message

"error_reporting(0);
fopen('test.txt',r);
echo('test for turning off warning message');
?>

Result: test for turning off warning message"

1st Ave Machine>View Media

Interesting music video.

CSU Connection.com is the place to be!

"Here are the videos! Enjoy."

Japaner schocken | chilloutzone.de - free games and free fun

Japaner schocken | chilloutzone.de - free games and free fun

http://archiv.chilloutzone.de/05071103.wmv

Please excuse some of the links advertised on these pages.

mobiBLU 512 MB Cube Digital Audio Player, Orange - Wal-Mart

"At only 1 inch in size, the mobiBLU Cube is the world's smallest, full-featured digital audio player. The brilliant OLED display lets you easily see track names, settings and battery status. Also features a multi-function headphone jack for USB 2.0 connectivity. Plays about 250 songs with its 512 MB capacity.

More Cube features: SRS WOW Sound Effects, FM Radio, FM/Voice Recorder, Clock Display and Sleep Timer"

LibraryThing | Catalog your books online

"Catalog your books online

* Easy. Catalog your books online (example); no software required.
* Powerful. LibraryThing mines the full Library of Congress catalog—ideal for collectors and scholars.
* Free. Enter 200 books for free; lifetime membership $10 (beta special).
* Tagged. LibraryThing allows blog/Flickr-style tagging (example).
* Shared. Show everyone your library, or keep your library private. You can even put a widget on your blog to show people what you're reading.
* Safe. LibraryThing's not going away, but you can export your data."

Postgresql audit table

open-ils blog » Blog Archive » Filler: "Like all big projects that deal with user transactions we require an amount of accountability because of shared access to customer/patron data. The normal approach to this when using an RDBMS is to create an audit table for each production table you want to track. Normally one would have to create each audit table by hand, but since we’re using Postgres we get a little help. Postgres has a table creation option called LIKE that will create all columns from the named LIKE table in addition to any named in the CREATE list. Wrap that up in a UDF that creates the audit table and add a couple of triggers, and voila!"

MilkandCookies - Crazy Ping Pong Match

MilkandCookies - Crazy Ping Pong Match: "Two tournament players get more caught up in keeping the ball alive than actually winning."

Moodteller: Estimating mood levels in LiveJournal

"A demo of a technique for estimating the current mood levels in the blogosphere using the language used by bloggers."

I hate to be pedantic about your pedantry

"I hate to be pedantic about your pedantry, but the phrase itself by no means implies two chronological acts and is not understood as such. And to amend it to “You can’t eat your cake and still have it” would be one of those small acts of linguistic dumbing-down that no true pedant should be in favor of. Or of which no true pedant should be in favor. Or in favor of which no true pedant should be. Whate ver."

Byron's Dutch Oven Recipes - Campfire Dutch Oven Pizza

"Campfire Dutch Oven Pizza
1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef 1/2 medium red onion; diced
2 tsp. italian seasoning 3 Tbs. diced greeen bell pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder 3 Tbs. diced red bell pepper
salt and black pepper to taste 1 (8 oz.) can mushroom stems & pieces; drained
2 Tbs. olive oil 12 black olives; sliced
1 can crescent rolls 8 oz. shredded Cheddar cheese
1 jar pizza sauce 8 oz. shredded Mozzarella cheese

Heat a 12' Dutch oven using 18-20 briquettes bottom until hot. In a medium bowl add ground beef, italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper; mix together with your hands. Drop ground beef by small pieces into the hot Dutch oven and fry until brown. Remove browned beef from Dutch oven and wipe oven down with a paper towel.

Pour olive oil into Dutch oven and spread evenly over bottom of oven. Unroll the can of crescent rolls and line the bottom of the oven with a layer of flattened rolls. Spoon pizza sauce evenly over crescent rolls. Sprinkle evenly with seasoned ground beef, red onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, olives, and top with Cheddar and Mozarella cheeses.

Cover and bake using 8-10 briquettes bottom and 16-18 briquettes top for 20-30 minutes until crust is browned on edges and cheese is bubbly.

Serves: 6-8"

Evolution Quotes

"For scientific materialist the materialism comes first; the science comes thereafter. We might therefore more accurately term them 'materialists employing science.' And if materialism is true, then some materialistic theory of evolution has to be true simply as a matter of logical deduction, regardless of the evidence. The Unraveling of Scientific Materialism First Things November 1997

One of the ironies of the whole controversy is that it's a stock in trade for the Darwinists to say, 'The critics are religiously motivated and they believe in God and they're throwing their religion at us and they shouldn't be doing that, and they should keep that out of science,' But being religious or antireligious is the same thing: It's a position about religion and God, and it goes beyond the evidence and into very confident assertions that are based more on personal convictions than they are scientific testing. Phillip Johnson's Assault Upon Faith-Based Darwinism East Bay Express July 27 2005"

Closing techniques

Closing techniques: "This is a big list, but the real list of closing techniques is almost endless. You can go to each need, for example, and invent several closes around satisfying or threatening them. Here are closing tips to help you further.

'Sell on the tangibles, close on the intangibles' is good general advice. Note how many of these methods follow this rule."

Highspeed Photography of Punctured Water Balloons:

"Highspeed Photography of Punctured Water Balloons:

Punctured water balloons are photographed at high speed (1000 frames/sec) in a laboratory. Since the rupture process is on the order of milliseconds, the initial impact of the membrane retraction on the bulk fluid can be observed without the significant interference of gravity."

LEGO.com Factory LEGO Digital Designer

"LEGO DIGITAL DESIGNER

Welcome to LEGO® Digital Designer! With Digital Designer 1.4, you can build anything in your imagination using virtual LEGO bricks - right on your computer at home!"

Technology

"New mediums aren't an everyday thing. Neither is the technology used to create them. Zebra holography, a very unique technology uses a highly proprietary process that renders a very fantastic result. "

AnnualCreditReport

"This central site allows you to request a free credit file disclosure, commonly called a credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion."

PocketMod: The Free Disposable Personal Organizer

"What is a PocketMod?

The PocketMod is a new way to keep yourself organized. Lets face it, PDAs are too expensive and cumbersome, and organizers are bulky and hard to carry around. Nothing beats a folded up piece of paper. That is until now. With the PocketMod, you can carry around the days notes, keep them organized in any way you wish, then easily transfer the notes to your PDA, spreadsheet, or planner.

The PocketMod is a small book with guides on each page. These guides or templates, combined with a unique folding style, enable a normal piece of paper to become the ultimate note card. It is hard to describe just how incredibly useful the PocketMod is. It's best that you just dive in and create one."

BBC News | In pictures

"Santiago Pangan, local recycler"

HoustonChronicle.com - How Curious George escaped the Nazis

"How Curious George escaped the Nazis
Popular books' authors fled Paris by bicycle with manuscript"

Cato News Release - September 14, 2005

"Budget Disaster Looming
Cato scholars offer budget cuts, as requested by Majority Leader DeLay

At a briefing on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay declared an 'ongoing victory' against bloated federal spending. Congress passed $62 billion of spending for Hurricane Katrina relief that will push the deficit back up to the $400 billion range. When asked whether Katrina relief should be offset with budget savings elsewhere, DeLay said 'bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it.'

Cato Institute scholars Steve Slivinski and Chris Edwards have the offsets that the majority leader is looking for. They have compiled $62 billion in spending cuts that would offset Katrina relief in the short-term and create savings to reduce the federal deficit over the long-term."

Tony Snow: Fear is a waste of time

"Here is a short inventory:

Faith matters. Prayers heal. Love overcomes.

People want to do good for others; they just need excuses.

Fear is a waste of time. The worst that can happen is that we'll die -- which happens to everybody, anyway. Until the Grim Reaper comes knocking, we're alive.

We can count our hardships, but not our blessings.

Life does not revolve around us. It envelops us.

There is no condition that someone else has not already overcome.

"

Las Vegas Weekly

"Picketers for Hire

The strange business of protesting jobs that may be better than yours"

Radio Blogger

"Three days of Clueless Joe Biden, condensed into one minute.

A daunting task indeed, but one which I felt needed to be done. The Senior Senator from Delaware was arguably at the center of what little fireworks occurred at the now-concluded question and answer session with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. Without further ado, I give you Joe Biden."

ExtremeMusic.com - Class A Production Music Library – A Site For Sore Ears

Production music library.

brevity.org -- Links to essays in Best Software Writing I

"Joel Spolsky has compiled a book of essays on software, which he calls The Best Software Writing I. The essays all came from online sources, but when Spolsky released the chapter listing, I didn't see anywhere online where he posted links to the originals. So here they are."

Songs About Oakland

Songs About Oakland: "Trio member Bruce Bratton recalls a period of a week or more when 'every major radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area would play the Oakland Song at exactly the same moment. So you could literally go up and down the radio dial and hear the Oakland song everywhere without missing a beat.'"

mozdev.org - greasemonkey: index

"Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension which lets you to add bits of DHTML ('user scripts') to any web page to change its behavior. In much the same way that user CSS lets you take control of a web page's style, user scripts let you easily control any aspect of a web page's design or interaction.

For example, you could:

* Make sure that all URLs displayed in the browser are clickable links
* Improve the usability of a site you frequent
* Route around common and annoying website bugs
* Use the Coral content network selectively."

Demographic Google Map application

"Instructions:
To obtain a demographic report, simply select the desired report from the drop-down menu below, and click on the map."

It's an Artsy Ad

It's an Artsy Ad.

Hamlet - The Text Adventure

"Bedroom
You are in your luxurious palatial boudoir, all of ten feet square. There is a four-poster bed, and not much else. A portrait hangs on the wall.
An exit leads north.

> examine portrait
It is a painting of your late father - who, rather confusingly, was also called Hamlet - in the usual cheesy royal portrait pose."

Exclusive: BillG Goes To College

"You want it, we've got it. The camera work is a little bumpy, but here's the spoof video that was shown at PDC 2005... uncut. Some highlight screenshots are below..."

Small Ad

Small Ad

DAZ Productions - 3D Models, 3D Content, and 3D Software

"DAZ|Studio is a free software application that allows you to easily create beautiful digital art. You can use this software to load in people, animals, vehicles, buildings, props, and accessories to create digital scenes. DAZ|Studio includes two pre-configured scenes ready for you to Load & Render within DAZ|Studio. Just double-click on the scene thumbnails inside of DAZ|Studio, and everything will come on screen posed, lit, and ready for you to create a stunning digital image. "

Sushi Pictures

Sushi Pictures

USNews.com: The National Interest: Adam Smith, political pundit (9/14/05)

"Last night I was reading (actually, rereading) Gertrude Himmelfarb's luminous The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments, and came across this quotation from Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776.

'In every civilized society, in every society where the distinction of ranks has once been completely established, there have always been two different schemes or systems of morality current at the same time, of which the one may be called the strict or austere; the other the liberal, or if you will, the loose system. The former is generally admired and revered by the common people; the latter is commonly more esteemed and adopted by what are called people of fashion.'"

What is the BBS Documentary?

"Long before the Internet escaped from the lab, connected the planet and redefined what it meant to use a computer...

....there was a brave and pioneering band of computer users who spent their time, money and sanity setting up their home computers and phone lines to welcome anyone who called. By using a modem, anyone else who knew the phone number of these computers could connect to them, leave messages, send and recieve files.... and millions did.

They called these places 'Bulletin Board Systems', or BBSes. And their collections of messages, rants, thoughts and dreams became the way that an entire generation learned about being online."

Boeing Commercial Airplane Prices

"The prices above reflect a range of available options and configurations for each model. Configurations and options that may affect price include performance capability, interiors, avionics, fuel capacity, etc.

All prices are in U.S. dollars and are in millions."

CARLTON DRAUGHT BIG AD

"It's a big ad."

Towards a Semantic Web for Culture: Veltman: JoDI

"Figure 5. Aristotle's Four Causes"

Ellis Cohen's Relational Database Page

"Ellis Cohen's Relational Database Page

Educational course material for learning and teaching about
Introductory and Advanced Database Topics"

PSOUG Morgan's Library

"Puget Sound Oracle Users Group"

Telegraph | Opinion | Bush kept his head and the danger's passed

"I'm often dismissed as a Bush cheerleader, though I disagree with him on immigration, education and bombing Syria."

The Great American BBQ

"Barbecue is a touchy subject all over the country.
—Calvin Trillin"

Cinemocracy VOD

Cinemocracy VOD: WW2 films by John Ford, Frank Capra, etc.

Kodakgallery.com Slideshow - Katrina

"Slideshow (1 album)
Five Days with Katrina - Alvaro, 9/1/05"

Esquire:Feature Story:The Falling Man

"Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day."

Does the Truth Lie Within? - New York Times

Does the Truth Lie Within? - New York Times: "Roberts was convinced that this system was accompanied by a powerful signaling mechanism: whenever you ate a food that was flavorful (which correlated with a time of abundance) and familiar (which indicated that you had eaten this food before and benefited from it), your body demanded that you bank as many of those calories as possible."

Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas: Ten examples about sleep, mood, health, and weight

"ABSTRACT:
Little is known about how to generate plausible new scientific ideas. So it is noteworthy that 12 years of self-experimentation led to the discovery of several surprising cause-effect relationships and suggested a new theory of weight control, an unusually high rate of new ideas. The cause-effect relationships were: (1) Seeing faces in the morning on television decreased mood in the evening (>10 hrs later) and improved mood the next day (>24 hrs later), yet had no detectable effect before that (0–10 hrs later). The effect was strongest if the faces were life-sized and at a conversational distance. Travel across time zones reduced the effect for a few weeks. (2) Standing 8 hours per day reduced early awakening and made sleep more restorative, even though more standing was associated with less sleep. (3) Morning light (1 hr/day) reduced early awakening and made sleep more restorative. (4) Breakfast increased early awakening. (5) Standing and morning light together eliminated colds (upper respiratory tract infections) for more than 5 years. (6) Drinking lots of water, eating low-glycemic-index foods, and eating sushi each caused a modest weight loss. (7) Drinking unflavored fructose water caused a large weight loss that has lasted more than 1 year. While losing weight, hunger was much less than usual. Unflavored sucrose water had a similar effect. The new theory of weight control, which helped discover this effect, assumes that flavors associated with calories raise the body-fat set point: The stronger the association, the greater the increase. Between meals the set point declines. Self-experimentation lasting months or years seems to be a good way to generate plausible new ideas."

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - William Morrow, 2005

"Dubner and Levitt's latest New York Times Magazine 'Freakonomics' column (Sept. 11, 2005) concerns Seth Roberts, a Berkeley psychologist whose very long and frequently strange history of self-experimentation has led to, among other things, a revolutionary new diet."

dallasobserver.com | News & Features | News | Woot, There It Is | 2004-11-18

"From fancy watches to the “Bag O’ Crap,” woot.com sells itself to rabid consumers—one item a day

Every night, one minute before midnight, they hunch over their computers, this crazed lot of 10,000 from across the world, hoping to be the first to buy the next day's Woot, or, barring that, the first to post an opinion about it."

Dancing About Architecture: Funny People at Woot!

"Tired of clicking all over the web looking for the lowest price on the finest merchandise with the best features from the most reliable retailers? Give your inner Consumers’ Reporter a break by indulging in a purchase that no one would mistake for a good deal: another one of Woot’s famous Bags o’ Crap."

WolframTones: My WolframTones Collection

"My WolframTones Collection"

Reason: Confessions of a Welfare Queen: How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars

"Confessions of a Welfare Queen
How rich bastards like me rip off taxpayers for millions of dollars
John Stossel"

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company | Information

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company | Information: "My name is Jay Shafer, and since 1997 I have been living in houses smaller than some people's bathrooms. I call the first of my little handbuilt houses Tumbleweed (left). My decision to inhabit just 100 square feet arose from some concerns I had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because I just do not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space. I"

English as she is spoke: Introduction

"This 1883 book is without question the worst phrasebook ever written. The writer, Pedro Carolino, who was Portuguese, did not particularly speak English, nor did he have a Portuguese-English dictionary available. Instead, he worked with a French-English phrasebook and a Portuguese-French dictionary. The results, I'm sure you'll agree, are staggering.

This text is that of a book of excerpts compiled a few years after the book was first published. Anything that looks like an error is, in fact, the way it actually appears in the book. I've transcribed the complete text of that book; I do not, unfortunately, have a copy of the original. I'm sure you'll notice bits that look like typos. They're not; that's all part of the fun."

Greg Packer Is the 'Man on the Street'

"He's not just another face in the crowd at concerts, book signings, and sporting events. Somehow, over the course of 10 years, one man has managed to become the media's go-to guy, quoted more than 100 times in various publications, including several prominent newspapers. Greg Packer is the 'man on the street.'"

Grits for Breakfast: DEA Nostalgic for Alcohol Prohibition?

"The Drug Enforcement Agency pines away on its website for the good old days of alcohol Prohibtion, because it 'worked'!"

Homocon: No Blood for Nuclear

"'The small town of Galena, Alaska, is tired of paying 28 cents/kwh for its electricity, which is three times the national average. Today, Galena 'is powered by generators burning diesel that is barged in during the Yukon River's ice-free months,' according to Reuters. But Toshiba, which designs a small nuclear reactor named 4S (for 'Super Safe, Small, & Simple'), is offering a free reactor to the 700-person village . . . Galena will only pay for operating costs, driving down the price of electricity to less than 10 cents/kwh. The 4S is a sodium-cooled fast spectrum reactor -- a low-pressure, self-cooling reactor. It will generate power for 30 years before refueling . . . '"

TOSHIBA - Nuclear List of Delivered Units

"History & Experiences
Nuclear plant"

Desktop Publishing Circa 1976

"Cut and paste meant using scissors and rubber cement to paste prepared sections of text and graphics onto a master page. "

Microchess

"I love programming. It is almost impossible to explain the joy of writing software to someone who has not experienced it.

First and foremost, it is an act of creation. From a simple thought, and the arrangement of a few words and symbols, a reality is created that did not exist before.

No other activity can keep you in the moment the way that writing software can. At each step, one hundred percent of your concentration is applied to the solving of the current problem. Time disappears.

A well written program is a work of art. From conception to final presentation, the activity is that of an artist - the embodiment of a dream world expressed as an interactive experience for the user."

On The Media- Pulling Back the Curtain

"Everybody always sounds erudite and witty on NPR, and I've always wondered why, and I think there probably is some darkroom magic going on there."

BBQ Junkie - a Los Angeles barbecue odyssey » Charcoal chimney starter

"If you know someone who uses charcoal lighting fluid… might I suggest that a charcoal chimney starter makes a great gift. Charcoal chimney starters are not that expensive (around $12) and will save him or her money in the long run. I have even seen one made from an empty coffee can that had both ends removed with church key holes along the edge."

PHP on Mac OS X

"For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ll assume you’ll be installing PHP as an apxs module that works with the Apache server that shipped with Mac OS X. I’ll show you how I installed a few modules that were of particular interest to me, though other modules can be installed using similar methods."

php iCalendar

"PHP iCalendar is a PHP-based iCal file viewer/parser to display iCals in a Web browser. Its based on v2.0 of the IETF spec (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt). It displays iCal files in a nice logical, clean manner with day, week, month, and year navigation. It is available in 13 languages and includes support for printing, searching and RSS news feeds."

The Opportunity Cost of Economics Education - New York Times

"'You won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert (which has no resale value). Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your next-best alternative activity. Tickets to see Dylan cost $40. On any given day, you would be willing to pay up to $50 to see Dylan. Assume there are no other costs of seeing either performer. Based on this information, what is the opportunity cost of seeing Eric Clapton? (a) $0, (b) $10, (c) $40, or (d) $50.'"

Banana sticker collection

"I'm interested in trading with other label collectors. If you send me your address, I'll get in touch with you. Thank you."

The New Yorker's Cheap Dates - Gladwell tells them what to think. By Mickey Kaus

"I just installed the highly-touted Google Desktop search engine because a friend of mine told me that it will change my life. It will. My computer is now running about half the speed it used to and I'm going to lose my job! I think I will now uninstall Google Desktop. [Update: Google gone. Speed back.]"

Open Source Projects for Oracle

"This is a small sample of the numerous Open Source projects available that extend, use, and build upon Oracle technology."

The American Experience | Race for the Superbomb | Panic Quiz

"The following government-sponsored quiz appeared in the August 21, 1953 issue of Collier's magazine as a supplement to an article about human behavior during nuclear attack. It was intended to help readers from becoming 'victims of panic.'"

TV Tunes Online Television and Cartoon Theme Songs, plus Trivia!

"TV Tune Lyrics: Cartoons"

Graphical Event Ticker for your Signature, Message Boards, Blogs and Web Page

"Add a useful graphical tracker to your message board signature, home page or blogs using the TickerFactory.com free tickers."

A War to Be Proud Of

"LET ME BEGIN WITH A simple sentence that, even as I write it, appears less than Swiftian in the modesty of its proposal: 'Prison conditions at Abu Ghraib have improved markedly and dramatically since the arrival of Coalition troops in Baghdad.'

I could undertake to defend that statement against any member of Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, and I know in advance that none of them could challenge it, let alone negate it. Before March 2003, Abu Ghraib was an abattoir, a torture chamber, and a concentration camp. Now, and not without reason, it is an international byword for Yankee imperialism and sadism. Yet the improvement is still, unarguably, the difference between night and day. How is it possible that the advocates of a post-Saddam Iraq have been placed on the defensive in this manner? And where should one begin?"

Cellphones Catapult Rural Africa to 21st Century - New York Times

YANGUYE, South Africa - On this dry mountaintop, 36-year-old Bekowe Skhakhane does even the simplest tasks the hard way.

Fetching water from the river takes four hours a day. To cook, she gathers sticks and musters a fire. Light comes from candles.

But when Ms. Skhakhane wants to talk to her husband, who works in a steel factory 250 miles away in Johannesburg, she does what many in more developed regions do: she takes out her mobile phone.

Oakland: Spinmeister charts new course

"Tim Monroe is rolling to the finish line on his 25-year quest to navigate all 831 miles of Oakland streets, plus hundreds of miles in neighboring towns, on skates."

BlogRolling - Members Home

"Below are all your available BlogRolls. All the other sections of BlogRolling are available from the navigation menu on the left."

The Powerbook Prank: He wanted a Powerbook. We gave him a P-P-P-Powerbook!

"It all started with an eBay auction for a new G4 Powerbook. My friend Cory wanted me to sell it for him just days after he bought it. Probably because he realized that, aside from looking cool, he had no real use for it. For the sake of an easy sale, I just pretended to sell it as my own, with a starting price of $1700, and the 'Buy It Now' option for $2100."

N-Game

"One of the most addictive games we've posted in a while!"

Programming Language Designer or Serial Killer?

Take the quiz, see how many you identify as either a language
designer or serial killer!

Brutally Honest: Greatest Movie Line Ever

Featuring Bob Hope and Zombies.

The logical Fallacies: Index

The logical Fallacies: Index

Crazy eBay mom

Crazy eBay mom: "My mother is insane. Like, one of those ladies you see on the local news insane. Since it's inevitably going to come up I'll get out of the way that I am too, but at least I take a full dose of my medication. I've been meaning to make this thread for about the last year, but the longer I waited the more interesting the situation became. Also, I'm incredibly lazy. Case in point, these pictures are about three weeks old. Anyway, lets take a tour of our eBay house."

22catcher

"This street photography,this purity of approach,is potentially the most beautiful.Perhaps it is for the very reason that the photographs have no meaning,no function,no purpose to fulfill,no axe to grind,no ideology to speak of,that they please me as much as they do.It is the simplicity of the moment,the quality of the composition,which affect me.The fact that I saw something,a situation,that it moved me,that I wish to photograph it, that is enough. I take my camera everywhere because you never know when a lucky moment might happen."

Yat-kha, Albert Kuvezin Tuvan throat singing punk band.

"KANZAT is his special style of kargiraa khoomei. When he was a little boy he was thrown out of the choir and told never ever to sing again. So he tried playing football instead. When he realised that there was such a thing as Deep Purple and Sonic Youth, he decided to get rid of the football and get a guitar and start singing again, although the ideology department of the Communist Party didn't like it very much."